Venture Catalyst Partners with Davis Coworking
UC Davis Venture Catalyst and Davis Coworking have entered into a collaboration agreement to integrate the coworking facility as a member of the Distributed Research Incubation & Venture Engine (DRIVE™) Network. The DRIVE Network provides university-associated innovators and startups with access to a network of thematically oriented business incubators with affordable work space, lab space, and equipment.

Davis Coworking opened its 2,300-square-foot facility earlier this year to provide coworking, meeting, and collaboration space to individual members, companies, and organizations in the Davis community. The space is designed to offer an environment that will stimulate social interaction, collaboration, and innovation. In addition to providing space and business amenities, Davis Coworking will be organizing events and workshops to provide unique learning opportunities and connections for its members. Early interest in the facility has been strong, with roughly 45 individuals using the facility in the past 4 months, including more than a dozen regular monthly members.

To learn more about Davis Coworking, Click Here
Bill Tucker Appointed Interim Associate Vice Chancellor for Innovation and Technology Commercialization at UC Davis
William (Bill) Tucker has been appointed Interim Associate Vice Chancellor for Innovation and Technology Commercialization within the UC Davis Office of Research. In his interim role, Tucker will assume responsibility of Venture Catalyst, which facilitates the creation of new ventures and technology startups enabled by university innovations. He will continue to oversee the operations of Innovation Access, which manages the University’s intellectual property. Tucker has served as Executive Director of Innovation Access since March 2017. Prior to his appointment at UC Davis, Tucker was Interim Vice President of Research and Graduate Studies (RGS) at the University of California Office of the President.... Read More
UC Davis Venture Catalyst SBIR/STTR Knowledge Exchange
Focus on Funding for Innovative Cancer Projects
This talk will offer an opportunity for participants to engage with the National Cancer Institute’s Small Business Innovation Research (NCI SBIR) Development Center, which provides funding, networking, and mentoring assistance to small businesses with innovative cancer technology projects. NCI SBIR Program Director Dr. Kory Hallett will discuss new and existing NCI funding opportunities, SBIR application tips and suggestions, and other commercialization resources for small businesses such as the I-Corps at NIH entrepreneurship program.

WHEN:
Thursday, September 26, 2019, 2:30PM - 3:30PM
UC Davis Venture Catalyst SBIR/STTR Grant Workshop
The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Programs, collectively known as “America’s Seed Fund”, provide nearly $3 billion in funding each year to support the development and commercialization of innovative technologies. Venture Catalyst Associate Directors Zane Starkewolfe and Ryan Sharp will provide an overview of the SBIR/STTR program and discuss all aspects of how to strategically approach obtaining funding and developing a competitive, well-written grant application. Topics will include aligning business and technology development needs with available SBIR/STTR opportunities, requirements for program participation, the general application process, commercialization considerations, proposal development, budgets, and award management.

WHEN:
Thursday, October 17, 2019, 5:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
UC Davis Sustains Research Funding with $845.5 Million in Awards
UC Davis nearly matched its record level of annual research funding in 2018-19, receiving $845.5 million in grants and contracts. The campus received a total of 4,519 awards, representing a wide range of research, services and community outreach, with important contributions from all 10 of the campus’ colleges and schools. The federal government remains the top source of funding for UC Davis, with grant totals increasing by $26 million for a total of $473 million in awards.... Read More
’18-19 Fundraising 2nd Best in UC Davis History
UC Davis posted its second-highest development year ever in fiscal year 2018-19, raising $234 million from 36,800 donors. Leading the way in fundraising was the School of Veterinary Medicine with more than $49.5 million, followed by the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and the School of Medicine with $48 million and $46.8 million, respectively.... Read More
4 Developers Invited to Submit Aggie Square Proposals and Aggie Square’s Sneak Preview
UC Davis issued a request for proposals to a group of four master developers interested in financing, designing, building, owning and managing the first phase of Aggie Square, a new innovation hub for the university’s Sacramento campus.

Aggie Square’s Phase 1 plan calls for approximately:
  • 500,000 square feet of science, technology and engineering space;
  • 250,000 square feet of classroom, office and co-working space;
  • 200 housing units for undergraduate, graduate and professional students;
  • 30,000 square feet of “community-serving” ground-floor space; and
  • a market plaza and pavilion connecting Aggie Square with the community.

IBM and the UC Davis Office of Public Scholarship and Engagement will be sharing space in an office called Launch@AggieSquare across the street from the medical center. Launch will feature a flexible demonstration area for faculty, IBM, and others to showcase their latest innovations and collaborative projects. As well, this space can accommodate meetings for local community groups — a feature that many neighborhood leaders have requested.... Read Aggie Square Sneak Preview
$2.5M to Develop Bioenergy Feedstock Poplar Trees That Can be Grown on Low-Quality Land
Gail Taylor, professor and department chair in the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences, in collaboration with geneticists Jin-Gui Chen and Wellington Muchero at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, received $2.52 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy to develop bioenergy feedstock poplar trees that can be grown on low-quality, poor, and marginal land.... Read More
How Argentina’s Gridx Is Building Foodtech and Agtech Companies with Backing from Billionaires (AgFunder News)
Argentina's Grid Exponential or GridX, part of the UC Davis Worldwide Accelerated Research Partnerships (WARP) program, was founded by Matias Peire to bring together science, capital, and entrepreneurs. The organization has nearly $18 million under management to help build companies. BeeFlow, which recently raised $3 million in seed funding, is one of the six food and agriculture companies that GridX's helped create and has since engaged with Venture Catalyst through WARP. BeeFlow's develops organic molecule compounds to increase crop yields with bee pollination.... Read More
Two UC Davis Health Pathologists Named Among the Nation's Top 100 Industry Trailblazers
Richard Levenson and Bennet Omalu, pathologists in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, were named among the 100 trailblazers to The Pathologist’s 2019 Power List for their breakthroughs at the laboratory bench and in the clinic. Levenson, a professor and vice chair for Strategic Technologies in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, is recognized for developing Microscopy with Ultraviolet Surface Excitation (MUSE). UC Davis also recognized Levenson with a 2018 Innovator of the Year award. Omalu is a volunteer clinical faculty member at UC Davis Health with expertise in forensic pathology and neuropathology. He was the first to identify and describe chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in athletes in 2002.... Read More
Startup News
The Birth of a Coffee Industry in California (Life and Thyme)
Frinj Coffee was launched in 2017 and grows local California coffee in Goleta. The company support a growing number of farms in coastal southern California and leads the way for California in becoming a coffee growing innovation center.... Read More
Arcadia Biosciences Announces Closing of $10 Million Registered Direct Offering Priced At-the-Market
Arcadia Biosciences, a food ingredient company focused on improving the quality and nutritional content of crops, announced the closing of its previously announced registered direct offering of 1,318,828 shares of its common stock. The offering was priced at-the-market at a purchase price per share of $7.52, for gross proceeds of approximately $9.92 million.... Read More
Arcadia Specialty Genomics™ Expands Hemp Operations with New Sun-Grown Cultivation and Research Facility in California
Arcadia Specialty Genomics, a division of Arcadia Biosciences, announced plans for a new sun-grown hemp cultivation and agronomic research facility in Imperial County, California. The company has been licensed to produce hemp seed and will generate its proprietary seed lines for cannabidiol (CBD) oil extraction.... Read More  
Arcadia Biosciences Announces Management Succession
Arcadia Biosciences announced that Raj Ketkar, president and CEO, will retire effective September 1, 2019. In line with its succession plan, the board has appointed Matthew Plavan to chief executive officer and member of the board of directors. Plavan is succeeded by Pam Haley as Arcadia's new chief financial officer.... Read More
Sage Therapeutics Announces the New England Journal of Medicine Publishes Data from Phase 2 Trial with SAGE-217 in Major Depressive Disorder
Sage Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company committed to developing novel therapies with the potential to transform the lives of people with debilitating brain disorders, announced that the New England Journal of Medicine published full results from the double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled Phase 2 study evaluating SAGE-217 as a treatment for major depressive disorder.... Read More
Intestinal Inflammation in Infants Dramatically Reduced with Bifidobacterium infantis
Findings from a new study published in Pediatric Research show that feeding activated Bifidobacterium infantis (B. infantis) EVC001 to breastfed infants reduced markers of chronic intestinal inflammation by up to 98 percent during the first two months of life, which is a critical period of immune system development. The study was led by researchers from UC Davis and was funded by Evolve BioSystems, a company developing the next generation of products to establish, restore, and maintain a healthy newborn gut microbiome..... Read More
Molecular Matrix, Inc. Forms Strategic Alliance with Philosys Healthcare
Molecular Matrix, Inc. (MMI) announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Philosys Healthcare Co., Ltd., a biomedical distribution and manufacturing company based in Seongnam, South Korea, to expand the availability of a next-generation bone graft substitute technology to the Asian market. MMI is a biotechnology company that began as a startup at UC Davis, and after more than 10 years of research and development has created a scaffold for bone tissue regeneration.... Read More
BeeFlow Raises $3m Seed Round for Pollination-as-a-Service (AgFunder News)
Argentinian startup BeeFlow raised $3 million in seed funding round from Ospraie Ag Sciences, the new venture capital arm of Ospraie Management. The company was helped by GridX, a member of the UC Davis Worldwide Accelerated Research Partnerships (WARP) program. BeeFlow is develops organic molecule compounds to increase crop yields with bee pollination.... Read More
Startup of the Month: PairAnything (Comstock's Magazine)
Comstock's Magazine named Pair Anything as their September startup of the month. PairAnything is a mobile app that helps customers discover the wine they enjoy at a cost they can afford through decisioning logic technology.... Read More
Startup Career Opportunities
Career Opportunities at Evolve Biosystems
Evolve Biosystems is currently hiring for several medical sales management positions and a research associate position.... Learn More
Career Opportunities at Chirp Microsystems
Chirp Microsystems is hiring for a test engineer position.... Learn More
Career Opportunities at Sage Therapeutics
Sage Therapeutics is hiring for a wide range of positions from quality control internships to senior-director level positions.... Learn more
Career Opportunities at Novoheart
Novoheart is hiring for several scientist roles including two senior-level scientists and two associate scientists.... Learn More
Regional Innovation News
Massive Cannabis Campus Lands $91 Million Funding Deal (Sacramento Business Journal)
Natura Life + Science, a Sacramento-based company will be operating a 265,000 square-foot cannabis campus that has received over $90 million in funding. The campus, which will be situated in southeast Sacramento, will be one of the largest vertically integrated cannabis operations in California.... Read More
Davis Company Raises $7.5M for Automated Strawberry Picker (Sacramento Business Journal)
Advanced Farm Technologies, a Davis-based company that makes mechanical strawberry harvesting equipment, raised $7.5 million in Series A funding led by Yamaha Motor Ventures & Laboratory Silicon Valley. Other investors in the round included the Sacramento-based Impact Venture Capital, Kubota Corporation and Catapult Ventures..... Read More
Ag Tech Company Biome Makers Gets $4 Million in VC Funding From Europe  (Sacramento Business Journal)
Biome Makers, which was founded in 2015 and became the first tenant in the Bayer Crop Science CoLaborator incubator space in West Sacramento, raised $4 million from Spanish venture capital firms Seaya Ventures and JME Ventures and LocalGlobe, based in London. The company developed a machine-learning system integrating microbiome information and Ag-data.... Read More
Marrone Bio Acquires Jet Ag and Jet Oxide Product Lines; Significantly Expands Opportunity in Agricultural Bioprotection Market
Marrone Bio Innovations, a Davis-based company developing bio-based products for pest management and plant health, has acquired Jet Ag and Jet Oxide product lines from Jet Harvest Solutions. Jet Ag and Jet Oxide are broad-spectrum products used both for control of fungal and bacterial diseases and as disinfectants. The transaction builds on a two-year relationship and prior distribution agreement between Jet Harvest and Marrone Bio.... Read More
Marrone Bio Announces Closing of Pro Farm Technologies Acquisition
Marrone Bio Innovations announced the closing of the acquisition of Finland-based Pro Farm Technologies OY, adding proprietary nutrient and biostimulant technology and products for seed and foliar treatments to its portfolio. As a result of the acquisition, Pro Farm became a wholly owned subsidiary of Marrone Bio.... Read More
WeWork Takes 96,000-Square-Foot Lease at 660 J St . (Sacramento Business Journal)
WeWork leased over 96,000 square feet of space in the heart of downtown Sacramento, which is the largest office lease in the region in 2019. WeWork will occupy the top-three floors of the building located at 660 J St, which will feature designed workspaces, available conference rooms and common areas for collaboration.... Read More
Bee Vectoring, Led by Sacramento Executive, Wins EPA Approval for Bee-Delivered Fungicide (Sacramento Business Journal)
Bee Vectoring Technology, a Canadian company led by its CEO Ashish Malik, who is based in Sacramento, won approval from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for its biological fungicide that is delivered to plants by bees.... Read More
Sacramento's S&W Seed Co. Strikes Australian Wheat Seed Licensing Deal (Sacramento Business Journal)
S&W Seed Co., a Sacramento-based company, announced that its adding wheat germplasm to its portfolio of products and is expanding in the Australian market under an exclusive 15-year license from Corteva Agriscience.... Read More
Innovation Insight
What Accelerators Look Like in 2019 (GAN)
GAN conducts an annual survey of accelerators and asks a wide array of question to gauge the current state of the accelerator industry. The latest report published in 2019 shows that, on average, accelerators receive nearly 600 applications and accept just under 10 into their programs. The data further shows that accelerators take an average of 7.3% state in a company for $38,000. In case of a note and SAFE, the amounts increase to an average of $85,000 and $50,000, respectively.... Read More
Standing On the Shoulders of Science (Center for Economic Policy Research)
The three key findings from a study done by the Center for Economic Policy Research analyzing US patents in order to establish a relationship between science and the value of the inventions are: 1. Patents that directly build on science is, on average, $2.9 million more valuable than patents in the same technology that is unrelated to science, 2. Novelty of patents predicts their value, and 3. Science-intensive patents are more novel.... Read More
Paying to Program? Engineering Brand and High-Tech Wages (National Bureau of Economic Research)
The finding from a National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) working paper shows that workers, particularly ones that are younger, accept 2 to 4 percent lower wages to work at companies with access to emerging technologies and interesting IT systems.... Read More
AR/VR Early Stage Valuations Soften, Leading to Investment and Acquisition Opportunities (VentureBeat)
According to Digi-Capital’s AR/VR Analytics Platform and new Augmented/Virtual Reality Report, global deal volume was up in Q2 2019 over Q1, but the valuation experienced a decline, which presents a unique investment and acquisition opportunity. .... Read More
Funding Opportunities
QB3 Biotech/Biopharma Pitch Summit
Application Deadline: September 20, 2019.... Learn More
Lemelson-MIT Student Prize
Application Deadline: September 27, 2019.... Learn More
Indigo Ag Terraton Challenge
Application Deadline: October 1, 2019.... Learn More
MIT SF Grand Hack 2019
Application Deadline: October 2, 2019.... Learn More
VentureWell E-Teams Grants
Application Deadline: October 2, 2019.... Learn More
MIT Hacking Medicine Grand Hack
Date: October 11-13, 2019.... Learn More
Food System 6 Accelerator
Application Deadline: October 15, 2019.... Learn More
Westley Prize
Application Deadline: October 15, 2019.... Learn More
Small Farm Tech Challenge
Application Deadline: October 31, 2019.... Learn More
Moore Inventor Fellows
Application Deadline: November 15, 2019.... Learn More
Big Ideas Contest
Pre-Proposal Deadline: November 20, 2019.... Learn More
UC Davis Institute for Innovation & Entrepreneurship 20th Annual Big Bang! Business Competition
Early Application Deadline: December 11, 2019.... Learn More
UC Santa Cruz SVLink Accelerator
Application Deadline: Applications Accepted on the 15th of Each Month Until Full.... Learn More
Cyclotron Road Fellows
Application Deadline: Ongoing.... Learn More
USAID Development Innovation Ventures
Application Deadline: Ongoing.... Learn More
AgLaunch 365
Application Deadline: Ongoing.... Learn More
Extreme Tech Challenge
Application Deadline: Ongoing.... Learn More
IndieBio Accelerator
Application Deadline: Currently accepting.... Learn More
Open SBIR/STTR Grant Topics. ... Learn More
Educational Opportunities
GeoVet Conference: Novel and Spatio-Temporal Approaches in the Era of Big Data
Date: October 8-10, 2019.... Read More
UC Davis Institute for Innovation & Entrepreneurship 20th Annual Big Bang! Business Competition Launch
Date: October 22, 2019.... Learn More
Central Valley Innovation & Entrepreneurship Forum
Date: October 23, 2019.... Learn More
Sacramento Entrepreneurship Academy
Application Deadline: Early December, 2019.... Learn More
Big Ideas Innovation Ambassador
Application Deadline: Currently Accepting.... Learn More
Valley Ventures Accelerator Fall 2019 Cohort
Application Deadline: Currently Accepting.... Learn More
Regional Events
AgStart Founder Education Workshop: Avoid the Top Ten Legal Mistakes Startup Companies Make
 Date: September 25, 2019.... Learn More
CleanStart Cleantech Meetup
Date: September 26, 2019.... Learn More
Central Valley Cleantech Showcase
Date: October 9, 2019.... Learn More
EmTech Ag Forum
Date: October 9, 2019.... Learn More
Startup Grind Sacramento, Dinakar Munagala, Thinci
Date: November 12, 2019.... Learn More
Hacker Lab Hands-On Education
Date: Ongoing.... Learn More
AgStart Office Hours
Date: Ongoing.... Learn More
Small Business Development Center Workshops
Date: Ongoing.... Learn More
Silicon Valley USPTO Workshops
Date: Ongoing.... Learn More
1 Million Cups
Date: Weekly (Wednesdays).... Learn More
Industry Events
SynBioBet Global Synthetic Biology Summit (San Francisco, CA)
Date: October 1-3, 2019.... Learn More
TechCrunch Disrupt (San Francisco, CA)
Date: October 2-4, 2019.... Learn More
WSJ Global Food Forum (New York, NY)
Date: October 7, 2019.... Learn More
GrowTech Fest (Chico, CA)
Date: October 8-10, 2019.... Learn More
TechConnect AI, Defense, Smart Cities, and SBIR/STTR Fall Summit & Expo (PNational Harbor, MD)
Date: October 8-10, 2019.... Learn More
Biocom FoodTech Showcase (Berkeley, CA)
Date: October 17, 2019.... Learn More
X-Con 2019: Digital Health Gets Real
Date: October 22, 2019.... Learn More
BIO Investor Forum (San Francisco, CA)
Date: October 22-23, 2019.... Learn More
The VERGE Clean Economy Conference (Oakland, CA)
Date: October 22-24, 2019.... Learn More
Bionetwork Partnering Summit (Laguna Niguel, CA)
Date: October 23-25, 2019.... Learn More
Biocom Insights: Scientific Healthcare Investing (San Francisco, CA)
Date: October 24, 2019.... Learn More
Startup Weekend SF: Blockchain for Good (San Francisco, CA )
Date: October 25-27, 2019.... Learn More
Commercial UAV Expo (Las Vegas, NV)
Date: October 28-30, 2019.... Learn More
Startup Grind Global Conference (Silicon Valley, CA)
Discount Code for UC Davis Students: UCDavisStudent
Date: February 11-12, 2020.... Learn More
Seed Central (Davis, CA)
Date: Monthly, Every Second Thursday.... Learn More
About Venture Catalyst 
 
UC Davis Venture Catalyst facilitates the translation of University research and technology by enabling the development of new ventures. Venture Catalyst engages with the Davis and Sacramento business, governmental and economic development community to highlight the development of technologies and ventures coming out of UC Davis that will drive tomorrow’s regional job creation. Working closely with these partners, Venture Catalyst is invigorating the technology-based entrepreneurial ecosystem of the entire region. 
The Venture Catalyst START™ Suite of programs and services provides the ABCs to equip UC Davis entrepreneurs with the tools they need to form and grow robust startups. The program gives founders the START they need to create a well-structured company and ensure the company is prepared for success. 
 
Contact Venture Catalyst 
For more information or for editorial comments, please email us .